Lessons
by teammcgonagall
Summary: Takes place during E09, where Lin is the first one to wake up after Tarrlok's attack.


Her limbs were sore and nearly screaming by the time she reached consciousness; she stretched hard and forced her eyes to open, to stare at the ceiling while she collected her bearings. The light had barely changed position in the room; Tarrlok couldn't be more than a few minutes gone. There was still time.

She groaned lightly as she forced herself to stand; her legs were shaky, her arms trembling. Her lessons from Katara, so old, rushed to the forefront of her mind as though they had been created only yesterday.

_Her mother was a prominent force in the corner of the field; Lin knew that Toph focused on every one of her movements with all of her concentration. Katara was only steps away, and her arms were wide, cautious. Her eyes were nervous, but Lin made sure her own gaze was certain._

_ "I'm going to go slow on you, just give you a taste, all right? You tell me when you need me to stop." Lin nodded._

_ "You better keep her on the ground, Katara!" Toph called, the threat in her tone nearly visible._

_ "You know I will, Toph."_

_ She moved into her stance slowly, to show Lin what to watch for. Her hands were suddenly grotesque and they clutched at the invisible air._

_ And then she couldn't move her left leg. She could _feel _it, it was certainly still a part of her body, but it would not budge, no matter how hard she strained._

_ "Don't struggle so much." Her voice was so soft and Lin hated her in that moment, hated Katara for the power she held over Lin's own body. "You don't want to damage yourself. Now, I'm going to move it a little, okay?" Lin nodded her assent._

_ Her leg traveled closer to the right, but it stirred in clumsy, deliberate movements that were strange to watch. Lin had thought bloodbending would be slightly more elegant, as grotesque as the whole thing was. But it was so…primitive. It was almost disappointing._

_ "Of course, if you ever come up against a bloodbender in a fight, they won't just take control of one part of your body: they will take _everything." _Katara paused, and released her grip on Lin's leg. She sighed with blissful relief as she gained back control, rotating her ankle and giving a few kicks. When she looked back up, Katara was watching her with tight lips. "Are you ready for that?"_

_ A few deep breaths; she could nearly feel her mother tense in the corner. "Yes."_

_ Katara's stance was even stronger this time, and her wrists twisted strangely, her fingers oddly bent. She felt herself stiffen, and she told herself to relax, just relax, but as the moments passed and she couldn't move she nearly screamed._

_ Katara read her face, and released her hold. Lin collapsed to the ground, gasping, and Toph was suddenly there, arms tight around her shoulders._

_ "_You went through that_?" she shuddered._

_ "It doesn't matter, sweetheart; how do you feel, do you need anything?"_

The exercise had occurred the next full moon after Yakone had been arrested—or, more appropriately, the next full moon after the evening Lin watched her mother occasionally tremble in Katara's arms, heard her murmur in a soft voice about being blind—about being _truly _blind. It had terrified and frustrated Lin, and she had demanded that Katara make her experience what her mother had. Aang and Tenzin had argued with her, saying how dangerous it was and how her mother was fine now, she should let this go, but she couldn't be moved. Toph had agreed it would be good for her—with the exception that the lesson be only a _taste _of bloodbending, a way to recognize the technique and understand the consequences of going against a bender. It had taken Lin and her mother up to the morning of the full moon to convince Katara.

And now the knowledge had finally come to fruition: Lin knew to relax her muscles, to massage gently where she ached the most, and to flex. The suddenness of the attack had made her exercises nearly pointless; pain vanished nearly as soon as she could register it, the blood flow returning to normal as she began to pace around the room.

She was the first one awake; Asami twitched a little on the far side of the room, but had not yet returned to consciousness. Tenzin lay closest to where she stood, and she watched him for a moment. He looked so peaceful; with his face fully relaxed he seemed an entire ten years younger. She was struck by it; suddenly once more she could see the man who had courted her, the man she had once dreamed of marrying. The man she had _nearly _married. She sighed as she watched him breathe, reminiscent and sad.

But the groans of Asami and Mako, one after the other, snapped her from her thoughts. She went to them and offered them guidance for how to best recover from the attack. Asami had nodded and smiled while Mako held his head; Asami covered one of his hands with hers, and gave him a softer smile as she stroked his hair for comfort.

Lin had not noticed the clenching of her fists as she walked back over to where Tenzin lay, still and unmoved. Ten years younger. She wasn't sure what had come over her, but she could not stop it; she straightened her hand and slapped his half-sleeping face.

"Wake up!" she growled.


End file.
